I think I speak for all three of us here at the Roundups when I say: damn, it feels good to be an authority on humor. People will sometimes be like, "Is this funny? I can't tell. I need an authority to tell me." And as I elbow my way into the conversation, I explain why it's their lucky day. And today is yours! Without further ado,

Favorites and duds from today's commenting.

Favorites, in no particular order:

The funny thing about this bit from Same Sad Echo in the Kentucky Fan post is, of course, how spot-on the Reaganite roast at the end is, but the way he abruptly switches gears to drop the hammer is what gives it all its punch. The other other funny thing about it, if you ask me, is how most of the replies don't really seem to get what's so good about the original joke. The non-sequitur from RMJ=H is great all on its own, but the remainder suffer from something I discussed on Wednesday, which is, for lack of a better word, memeification. Echo goes to the anti-conservative well and it works as a tonal change, but just ascribing conservative talking points to Chester, no matter how stupid they are, isn't a joke. Just like "Joe Flacco drives a regular car" isn't a joke. It's a reference. Big difference.

cobra, brah!'s James Dolan homicide gag feels a little wordy, but the "cap space" pun was new to me and pretty surprising. I think a joke that relies on shock should get to the point and get there quick, but this did it for me nevertheless.

At this point, I'm sure all Knicks fans would agree that the only way Dolan could free up some …
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Big time stupid idiot Universal Enveloping Algebra got some laughs, including a chuckle from me, with this groaner in the Dueling Agents post. You really have to squint to see the funny in this one, and for this genre of absurdist puns, that just works. Later, in the Hardcore Gamer post, UEA dropped a pwn of his own on a prepubescent professional gamer who could definitely afford to be taken down a peg. Nice.

Of course it wasn't these two. A good Sheff would never want to mess up Stew art.
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Actually, just check out that whole post. Steve U, Same Sad Echo, Dope, The Amazing Sneijderman, and RigmasTFT all connected with at least a double. Good work, gang.

I guess I'm the only one who enjoyed NoirJuggling's weird inversion joke in the Stern Choking post? That's funny, isn't it? For one, it's cute to swap the words and get your reader all tangled up. But to scroll back up and see David Stern's stupid face? And to think about calling him a frog right to said stupid face? Mmm-hmm. That's good laughin'.

In a Comment of the Day sort of way, reliable old DougExeter showed up to the Snow Photography post with a real humdinger. It would've been easy to overthink this one and, say, turn it into a dialogue, which it doesn't need. There's no reason to muck it up with making it into a character thing. It's much funnier to imagine a grown man reading the headline and just scratching his stupid head about his dead dog. A full-bore "What the fuck?" is the perfect touch. Nice and easy, Doug.

Inside baseball? Check. Flat delivery? Check. Gross? Check. It all works in EditBay's callback to a late night slam dunk from Raysism. Maybe this one would have broken some commenting rules if we weren't in our Mad Max period at the moment, but I say damn those rules to hell. I spit taked took spit took spitted taked It was funny.

they spent, on average, about 16 percent on actual charity. That figure is far below the minimum 65 …
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Mark this one down as a contingent dud - is the whole kit and kaboodle here, from 50ShadesofJimGray, that the cheerleaders are women and women are sluts and sluts get diseases? I'm not excoriating him here or calling for his banning solely because it has 16 recs and no one yelling at him, so surely there's some pop culture minutia I'm missing that makes this joke somehow less disgustingly sexist. Deadspin readers just can't be this bad, can they? I am very concerned.

The Hawks cheerleaders have plenty of experience going viral, so I won't question them here.
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Also from the "gotta be more to it than this" files, I was pondering this one from StuartScottsEye in the Air Hockey post for a good while. Our goal here isn't to beat up on any commenter who's making an effort, especially a veteran joker, but is the ice/ice thing all we're working with here? That is a bad premise, and one beneath SSE.

You've really gotta be careful what beer you use when playing this game. It's totally…
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Sorry about the inconclusive nature of the last two duds. Our research team is on vacation this week and so I'm the only one here to look up punchlines and treatments for the Apprentice's "Upper Leg/Lower Back Deficiency" issues (no ass). It's been busy.

But this D.O.A. Down Syndrome joke from Snarls Barkley I was able to grasp pretty immediately. Wouldn't mind this being the last time I saw a jab about kids with an extra chromosome, to tell you the truth. Punching down is a bad look.

Finally, I fucking hated this, all of this, started by JustinJump and ended by a great flood that sinks the world, if we have any luck at all. The next time someone asks you why you comment on or even read Deadspin, before you get your back up about Craggs or the Penn State coverage, remember this garbage "discussion" about punching a kid in the face. This is what they think of us.

On that note, sorry to cut off a little early, but hell, it's Friday. Don't waste your weekend inside reading this on a computer. Hell, there's probably thousands of things that would be a lot more fun to read inside on your computer this weekend. So long!